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Shelob
Shelob was a Great Spider and the greatest offspring of Ungoliant, the primordial spider. In the Third Age she lived in Mordor and was known to feed indiscriminately, preying on the inhabitants. She was encountered by Frodo Baggins and Samwise Gamgee in their quest to destroy the One Ring. Biography Early life Shelob's early history is completely unknown, save for the assumption that she was born in the Ered Gorgoroth and that she was the "last child" of Ungoliant. By the Second Age, she often feasted on her own children, and that at some point after fleeing from Beleriand, yet long before Sauron took the land of Mordor for himself she spun a dark lair in the Ephel Duath (Mountains of Shadow), near Cirith Ungol in the passes above Minas Morgul. For hundreds of years, she resided there making a labyrinth of webs within a network of caves to better trap her prey, which included all creatures great and small. She feasted primarily on those who wandered into her webs, though if a particularly juicy morsel was available, she would silently pursue and kill it. Third Age Sauron was aware of Shelob's presence in the mountains and allowed her to dwell there, for she made an excellent, if incidental, guard for the passage of Cirith Ungol. Sauron was known to be somewhat fond of her, and in a rare show of humor, was even known to refer to her as his cat. Sauron would sometimes give her food in the form of prisoners for which he had no more use, or servants who had displeased him. Reports of the massacre made by Shelob would be carried back to Barad-dur to further please the Dark Lord's humor. She would also sometimes eat Orcs that manned the tower of Cirith Ungol. However, as she was a more effective guard for the pass than they, Sauron never made any serious attempt to stop her (though Orcs would occasionally try to barricade her lair with stones). At one point after being set free from Mordor, Gollum stumbled into her lair while attempting to escape the barren country. She caught him, but he survived the encounter by promising to bring her tastier meats than he.The Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers, Book Four, Ch. IX: "Shelob's Lair", pp. 723 Orcs of Cirith Ungol had seen him on several occasions and believed that he was too thin and wiry for Shelob to bother eating.The Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers, Book Five, Ch. X: "The Choices of Master Samwise", pgs. 738-739 Gollum would attempt later to fulfill this promise by leading Frodo and Sam into her lair and abandoning them. His hope was that once Shelob finished eating the two hobbits, she would throw away the Ring with the other parts of the hobbits that she could not eat, allowing Gollum to retrieve it. The two hobbits eventually happened upon a passageway that was too choked with Shelob's dark cobwebs to proceed, but as fortune would have it, Frodo's sword Sting, being of Elvish make, was able to slice through them. Using the Phial of Galadriel, they managed to at first fend her off. The light of Earendil's Star shone from the Phial, caused unbearable stabbing pain to Shelob's darkened senses, but she returned to attack Frodo poisoning him with her stinger in a surprise attack just as they had reached the exit of the cave on the Mordor side. Sam then assaulted the creature using Sting in order to rescue his master, who lay poisoned after Shelob's surprise attack. In a pitched battle, Sam managed to stab one of her great eyes, injuring her leg, and pierce her great belly, the most grievous wound. Sam was lucky indeed as Shelob caused this wound herself, when she tried to stab him with the venomous stinger in the underside of her abdomen. None had ever wounded her so badly before.The Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers, Book Five, Ch. X: "The Choices of Master Samwise", pg. 729 It is not known if Shelob recovered from the battle, or if she succumbed to her wounds, as the book specifies that her fate will remain unknown to the people of Middle-earth. The last time she is mentioned is when Sam put on the One Ring, and heard Shelob "bubbling" in her misery far away, as his sense of hearing was vastly improved by wearing the Ring. While Shelob's ultimate fate was unknown, her offspring (those lucky enough to escape her hunger) continued to produce new generations of spiders. Nests of these spiders were known to have existed in Mirkwood. Character As a spawn of Ungoliant, Shelob would accurately be classified as part spider, part demon (to an unknown extent), though of a spider form. Like most spiders, Shelob had spindly legs, multiple eyes, and venomous chelicerae. She usually immobilized her prey with her paralyzing sting that enabled her to feed on her victims at her leisure, but could also crush her prey to death by swiftly dropping on them. Her head was cris-crossed with scars and she had a number of missing eyes. The Orcs comment she usually would paralyze her victims and trap them in webs, keeping them alive for some time before killing them. Portrayal in adaptations Ralph Bakshi's film Gollum indirectly mentions Shelob near the end of Ralph Bakshi's 1978 film, saying that "she might help us...", but she does not appear. The Lord of the Rings film trilogy Unlike in the books, Shelob makes her first appearance in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, rather than The Two Towers, because (as explained) if she had appeared in The Two Towers, there would be very little for Frodo and Sam to encounter in the final film. In this adaptation, Shelob appears as a CGI animated creature, roughly eight feet in length and seventeen feet across. Middle-earth: Shadow of War Shelob, in Middle-earth: Shadow of War, is visible in human form in the wraith-world. In the game, she has Celebrimbor's ring for quite some time while giving Talion visions about the fate of Minas Ithil (Minas Morgul) and the Ringwraiths. It is also seen in the game that Shelob was working with Sauron during the period he was posing as Annatar, and was implied to be his lover before he betrayed her. The mobile version of Shadow of War classifies Shelob as a Maia. However, her actual classification is unknown as she is a spawn of Ungoliant, who was not a Valar. Gallery Translations References de:Kankra fr:Arachne it:Shelob pl:Szeloba ru:Шелоб Category:Villains Category:Spiders Category:CGI characters Category:The Lord of the Rings Characters Category:The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (film) Characters Category:Characters in Middle-earth: Shadow of War